A vehicle roof is known which has a roof opening and a glass lid, which completely fills the roof opening in a closed position. The glass lid is adjustable for at least partly exposing the opening and has an inner face to which a sunshield is firmly attached. The sunshield possesses a series of uniformly spaced light apertures and associated with it is a thin closure plate constructed as a slider, which is guided parallel to the sunshield by means of mutually opposite guides and is provided with closure portions for completely or partly closing the spaced light apertures of the sunshield as desired. Openings alternate with the spaced light apertures, which openings can be completely or partly aligned as desired with the corresponding light apertures of the sunshield by sliding the closure plate. The sunshield is constructed as an opaque coating on the lower surface of the glass lid, against which the closure plate, which is slidably guided on the lid frame, directly bears.
By constructing the sunshield as a coating to the glass lid, against which the thin closure plate directly bears whilst being slidably guided on the lid frame and controlling the passage of light, a vehicle roof is obtained, the glass lid of which, while of simple construction, is of very low overall depth so that an advantageous increase in headroom inside the vehicle is obtained. The light apertures of the sunshield, arranged in rows at uniform spacings, are shaped as transverse slits of uniform dimensions and are bounded by opaque longitudinal and transverse webs of the glass lid coating, thus giving a lattice-like sunshield structure.
The thin closure plate is, with regard to its openings corresponding to the light apertures of the sunshield, its closure portions corresponding to the transverse webs, and its a real zones between the rows of openings corresponding to the longitudinal webs, of a lattice-like structure that registers with the sunshield. The width of the apertures and of the openings corresponds to the width of the transverse webs and the closure portions. The term "width" is to be understood for the purpose of this application as meaning dimensions in the sliding direction of the closure plate (this direction of sliding can be the same, but does not need to be the same, as the direction of sliding of the glass lid and the vehicle longitudinal axis).
On the basis of this construction, the light apertures of the sunshield are fully exposed or fully closed by the closure plate when the closure plate is displaced relative to the sunshield in the desired direction by a distance that corresponds to the equal width of the light apertures, openings, transverse webs and closure portions. On account of these equal width dimensions, the total maximum light passage area of the glass lid is restricted to about 50% of its total area that could be used for this purpose, or more exactly to less than 50% of its total area, because the longitudinal webs between the rows of light apertures also cannot be used for the passage of light. As a result, more than 50% of the usable area of the glass pane of the glass lid are covered by the opaque glass lid coating, and thus the maximum light incidence is limited.
An object of the present invention is further to improve the vehicle roof with glass lid and sunshield, while retaining a simple construction and the typical low total height, in such a way that the sunshield is given a maximum light passage area, which is larger than the opaque area covered by the glass lid coating in the useful area region of the glass lid.